How to root Galaxy Tab S7(+). (GUIDE)

[cbomb1337]

Thanks these guides worked on my Aussie tab s7.

 

[Skidoo03]

Hoping I can get some help, not new to rooting or even Samsung devices necessarily but I have tried patching the entire AP file and just the boot image using Odin 3.13.1 Patched, 3.13.3 Patched, and 3.14.1 Patched and either receive an error for "Only official released binaries are allowed to be flashed (boot)" or instead of boot I receive the same error but with vbmeta. I'm running the latest software available on Frija for my SM-T970 (T970XXU2BUI1/T970OXM2BUI1/T970XXU2BUI1) but can't for the life of me get it to work. Any ideas? Have tried multiple methods and read through the entire thread just at my wits end at the moment.

 

[AnonVendetta]

@Skidoo03: Did you unlock bootloader? It's not possible to root if you don't do that first.

 

[AnonVendetta]

Now that my device is fully paid off (or will be in the next few days when TD Bank collects the last payment), I'm ready to root. But first, I want to OTA update my firmware.

My device shipped with XAR US firmware, but about a month ago I manually flashed T970XXU2BUI1 (EUX September update) with Odin. However, after searching Google I've found that there is a T970XXU2BUJ3 October update. When I search for updates on the tab, it says I'm already at latest version.

Is there any way to force this update to download/install without using Odin? I'm thinking that the reason my tab can't "find" it is because I'm in the US, and EUX is Euro firmware. I'll try connecting to a Euro VPN server first to see if it makes a difference, I'd just rather not use a PC to update (even though it will be necessary for bootloader unlocking).

 

[jhill110]

Now that my device is fully paid off (or will be in the next few days when TD Bank collects the last payment), I'm ready to root. But first, I want to OTA update my firmware.

My device shipped with XAR US firmware, but about a month ago I manually flashed T970XXU2BUI1 (EUX September update) with Odin. However, after searching Google I've found that there is a T970XXU2BUJ3 October update. When I search for updates on the tab, it says I'm already at latest version.

Is there any way to force this update to download/install without using Odin? I'm thinking that the reason my tab can't "find" it is because I'm in the US, and EUX is Euro firmware. I'll try connecting to a Euro VPN server first to see if it makes a difference, I'd just rather not use a PC to update (even though it will be necessary for bootloader unlocking).

Search google for "frija". Install it and put the model number in appropriate place "SM-T870" , CSC would be "EUX" (exclude quotes) . Check the auto box and hit update. It will show you the latest version for that device (EUX) and you can download it. It a pretty fast download which is nice.

As always, back up your stuff first.

 

[AnonVendetta]

@jhill110: I've heard of Frija but never used it. I've always just grabbed my firmware from various sites. I use discretion and common sense when determining whether a particular site is safe. So far no issues, I can't remember the last time I had a malware infection from anything.

Anyway, I did find out that Odin can upgrade the firmware without factory reset, you just have to use home_csc file in place of the other one.

I know I'll have to reset when unlocking/rooting anyway. I'm just reading the whole thread before making a move.

Edit: I was right. BUJ3 is the latest update for EUX. I dont need to download it again since I already have it. It's just weird that the built-in system updater wasnt able to see it. And I have the Tab S7+ T970, not the Tab S7 T870.

 

[Mun2s]

I can confirm that this works on SM-T870 (T870XXU2BUF5)

Got the Fw from Samfw
followed 1st post, flashed patched magisk, reboot into recovery (normal Recovery) factory restored, Boot back into system with root Access.

 

[AnonVendetta]

I'm quite happy to say that I now have both Magisk and TWRP installed on EUX BUJ3 firmware. I made a few minor mistakes along the way, but nothing that required a full firmware reflash.

I've rooted plenty of other older devices, but nothing really new like the Tab S7+. A lot regarding Android has definitely changed over the years, and I'm not very familiar with some of the newer stuff. Like system as root, A/B partitions, dynamic partitions, Treble, etc.

Now I'm just wondering, is there a guide/method to get Secure Folder working with root? I know it won't work by default, but I've read that it can be made to working by patching a system file. I'm just looking for a device-specific guide.

 

[egandt]

I have a TAb S7 SM-T870 I can not find any firmware for this which seems odd.
On the Site: samfirms.com, but found wit Frija

So here are teh steps I've run though to root:
1. Unlocked the Boot Loader using steps in https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-unlock-the-tab-s7-bootloader.4158841/
2. Updated to latest Android from (10 Jan 2020) to (10 Oct 2021)
3. Then I managed to Frija (great app) top get the firmware, then using 7z21.03-zstd tp extract the boot.img.lz4 the decrypt to boot.img. (SM-T870_1_20211008152621_ra7f04dar6_fac in my case)
4. Installed Magisk 23.1 (as this is still Android11)
5. Patched the boot.img I extracted above
6. tar the (magisk_patched-23000_lKnRY.img in my case) to magisk_patched-23000_lKnRY.tar using 7zip
7. Downloaded the latest ODIN that I could find: Odin3 v3.14.1_3B_PatcheD (from pervious in this thread), did nothing hung so went with 3.14.4
8. Install the Samsung Drivers (SAMSUNG_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones)
9. Booted the Tablet into download mode (Vol- and Vol+ while connected to the PC), followed by volume up to get to Downloading's mode.
10. Start ODIN 3.14.4: At this point ODIN is loaded and finds the tablet on 0 : (COM5) in my case

I want to verify is that the last step of this long process is simply to select, AP and then this tar file C:\1\magisk_patched-23000_lKnRY.tar in my case. de-select Re-Partition (which was already unselected), and click Start.

Allow it to reboot with root, as I tried it once and got FAILED! in ODIN

Best answer I've found (with much searching) is maybe wrong boot.img for the current firmware, but this was the latest on Frija, sammobile only shows images from 3/31/2021 (and I have no idea which one it would be even there) yet the version installed is kernel 10/5 and Andorid Patch Level 10/1/2021.
SM-T870_1_20211008152621 if I'm reading this correctly is 10/08/2021 so that would seem to be a match with what is installed, also the PDA and CSC match the installed version, however there is no Phone as it is simply wireless, so again a version mismatch seems unlikely.

Solution:

The problem was and I'm posting this for others is that the file in the tar needs to be named boot.img so I ended up with:
boot.tar->boot.img
I had to rename the magisk'ed boot image back to boot.img, I'm use to fastboot where the name does not matter, but on ODIN the name indicates where to deploy the img file.

 

[AnonVendetta]

@egandt: I get my firmwares from here. Here are some for the SM-T870 (I have a SM-T970):

https://galaxyfirmware.com/model/SM-T870/

Havent had an issue with that site so far, all files are clean and downloads are fast enough.

Edit: that site seems to mis-list the T870 as a T970 Tab S7+. But if you read the firmware names, they all say 870. Probably just a device naming error on their end, my guess is that the actual firmware files are correct for your model.

If Frija is working well enough for you, I would say use that instead. I prefer to get my firmwares from sites, because that way I can download on any device that has a Web browser, not just Windows. I run Linux as my primary OS, Frija doesn't work in Linux. However, I do have a small Windows 10 installed that I dual boot into when I need to flash firmwares with Odin, or to run Windows-specific programs. And for some games. Outside of those scenarios, I don't use it much.

 

[AnonVendetta]

It looks like the 1st Android 12 firmware has just been released for the Tab S7+. It's called T970XXU2CULC, and appears to be for the Korean region. Hopefully it will only be a matter of days/weeks before it becomes available in XAR (US) or EUX (Europe) variants, I suspect we'll be among the last to get it.

Hopefully the root method doesn't change. Or at least, not significantly different from what it is now. I'm also hoping that there won't be some anti-rollback/version 3 bootloader BS, that might prevent going back to 11 if need be.

I'm still on the fence about 12, mainly because @ianmacd hasn't released a compatible TWRP for it, which is a must for me so I can do data partition backups. What's out there for 11 may work as-is, I'll have to test and find out. A user in our TWRP thread mentioned a release by someone else that is 12-compatible, I'll have to try that too, just as an alternative possibility. Without a TWRP that fully works with 12, I'll just end up staying on the last 11 firmware for my region.

 

[Markeee]

Does the region matter I thought as long as the model number matches your good to go ?

I'm pretty sure this below 12 KOO build should work on the US SM-T970 Tab S7+ am i wrong ?

Galaxy Firmware - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ (SM-T970)

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ Android tablet. Announced Aug 2020. Features 12.4″ Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 865+ chipset, 10090 mAh battery, 256 GB storage, 8 GB RAM.

galaxyfirmware.com

 

[AnonVendetta]

Does the region matter I thought as long as the model number matches your good to go ?

I'm pretty sure this below 12 KOO build should work on the US SM-T970 Tab S7+ am i wrong ?

Galaxy Firmware - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ (SM-T970)

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ Android tablet. Announced Aug 2020. Features 12.4″ Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 865+ chipset, 10090 mAh battery, 256 GB storage, 8 GB RAM.

galaxyfirmware.com

Well, theoretically the firmware region doesn't matter too much. As long as the firmware is compatible for the specific device model, it should work. Odin/Heimdall won't allow you to flash another model's firmware on a different model, it will just reject it without doing anything.

However, Samsung still releases different firmware region variants for the same model, and these firmwares are more optimum for a specific region than others. And then there is multi-CSC firmware, which supports more than one region.

Also, specific firmware releases like the Chinese variants, may not have Google apps built in (don't know, I've never flashed one to find out, but I know this is the case with many other manufacturers).

Then there is the matter of which language(s) the firmware supports. I could jump the gun and flash the Korean firmware right now, but I won't, I suspect it might not have US English as a supported language. I'm just going to wait on either EUX or XAR, I know those support the language I need.

 

[Markeee]

Well, theoretically the firmware region doesn't matter too much. As long as the firmware is compatible for the specific device model, it should work. Odin/Heimdall won't allow you to flash another model's firmware on a different model, it will just reject it without doing anything.

However, Samsung still releases different firmware region variants for the same model, and these firmwares are more optimum for a specific region than others. And then there is multi-CSC firmware, which supports more than one region.

Also, specific firmware releases like the Chinese variants, may not have Google apps built in (don't know, I've never flashed one to find out, but I know this is the case with many other manufacturers).

Then there is the matter of which language(s) the firmware supports. I could jump the gun and flash the Korean firmware right now, but I won't, I suspect it might not have US English as a supported language. I'm just going to wait on either EUX or XAR, I know those support the language I need.

Thanks for the thorough explanation. From past experiences it shouldn't be to long till the XAR pops up.
I thought I read somewhere that as long as the model number matched all firmware's are multi-CSC and supported multi-languages ?

 

[AnonVendetta]

Thanks for the thorough explanation. From past experiences it shouldn't be to long till the XAR pops up.
I thought I read somewhere that as long as the model number matched all firmware's are multi-CSC and supported multi-languages ?

In my experience with other Samsung devices, not all firmwares are multi-CSC. Some are, others aren't. But they did usually support more than one language, but not necessarily all languages.

I'm still just going to wait on EUX or XAR. I've noticed that EUX firmwares are usually available earlier than XAR variants. And judging from my last few flashes of it, EUX includes the XAR csc. I had Odin flashed EUX on my Tab S7+, and noticed that it had automatically selected XAR as the csc (in Settings > About). XAR is what my Tab originally shipped with when I bought it from Samsung's website. So this is good enough for me when it becomes available.

 

[SlightlyWind]

So samsung released the android 12 update for tab s7 (+?), if anyone has updated, can you tell me if the patch still works?

 

[AnonVendetta]

So samsung released the android 12 update for tab s7 (+?), if anyone has updated, can you tell me if the patch still works?

So far they've only released Android 12 for Korea. I'm not willing to try that particular firmware, but maybe someone else will test and post.

 

[SlightlyWind]

So far they've only released Android 12 for Korea. I'm not willing to try that particular firmware, but maybe someone else will test and post.

Oh, my bad. I checked samfw earlier and saw it (t875) getting released for a bunch of countries and thought that they are out globally already. Seems like it's not and the firmware for my specific country is not there either.

 

[Markeee]

So far they've only released Android 12 for Korea. I'm not willing to try that particular firmware, but maybe someone else will test and post.

The EUX version of 12 is showing up on Frija
Install or wait for the XAR ?

 

[AnonVendetta]

The EUX version of 12 is showing up on Frija
Install or wait for the XAR ?

Weird, since the firmware site I usually use (galaxyfirmware.com) only lists the Korean update. Are you sure it's for 12, not 11?

If so, I'll download it tomorrow, I don't have my laptop with me today.

As I said, it appears that the EUX firmware contains the XAR CSC, so I'd say go for it. If I were you, I would do a clean flash with Odin, rather than an upgrade flash that keeps data. When finished, be sure to check Settings > About to see if the XAR CSC successfully applied. I've flashed the EUX before and didn't see any obvious differences.

Edit: I won't be ready to flash it for a few days. I still have to back up my apps, their data, games, documents, etc. And my Magisk modules. I'll have to re-root the new firmware and install TWRP again, so I might as well start from scratch. I'm just not a big fan of having to redownload everything again, redo my settings. It already will take the better portion of a day to get it all set up.